The effect of protein level and diet quality on the performance of newly weaned pigs on a large scale facility

Abstract

The prophylactic use of in-feed antimicrobial growth promoters (AGP) in weaner pig diets has been banned within the EU and emphasis must therefore be placed on the development of effective nutritional strategies for disease prevention. Manipulating dietary protein supply (Wellock et al., 2006) and the heat treatment of cereals (Doucet et al., 2006) have been shown to improve gut health, decrease the risk of enteric disease and minimise the post-weaning growth check under experimental conditions, by decreasing substrate availability to potential pathogens, such as enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC). The aim was to investigate the combined effects of protein level and diet quality on the health and performance of weaned pigs in the absence of AGP and therapeutic levels of ZnO and CuSO4 in a large-scale facility.